[hypewatch]

My thoughts exactly! And apparently they won many contracts over several years. From the article:

> Netsential, a web services company used by multiple fusion centers, law enforcement, and other government agencies across the United States

[aerostable_slug]

Note the connection may have gotten them in the door initially, but their further contracts could have resulted from the fact that they were the only vendor that could respond to an RFP with proof of a similar prior project. Then they get two fusion centers, then three, then it's like buying IBM/Cisco for the LE leadership that doesn't really understand IT and just wants it all to work.

This kind of vendor lock-out is unfortunate as it effectively keeps startups out of the picture. The majority of contracts I've worked on in this space (barring defense, and that's because we worked in R&D) required similar attestations of experience.